Features

Phogat’s Haryana – A changing political landscape

Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr

With the 90-member house, Haryana Assembly Elections looming large and the political behemoths, BJP and Congress, attempting to clear through the foliage of ‘caste equations’ and intra-party conflicts towards victory, the climate of Haryana seems to be rapidly developing in favour of new and odd turns, especially those that clearly signal an anti-incumbency sentiment. However, the BJP is also rallying its regiments against the Opposition.

The exodus of saffron that had swallowed the nation with the first Modi government of the 2014-2019 term, seems to have been threatened with sporadic contaminations by the mammoth hand of Congress, hued in the nation’s colours itself. The poster child of Congress’ comeback, the Congress’ prodigal son Rahul Gandhi, has orchestrated significant and palpable attempts to unify the image of Congress and its politics. However, it has also been made clear that they are occasions of contrivance and, not organic resolutions. Nonetheless, the Congress has made a spectacular dent in the BJP’s vote bank – burning example of which may be seen in BJP’s recent UP loss, despite the religious politics deployed by the party to embellish the sentiment of Hindu preponderance amidst the demographic and electoral majority.

Congress’ steady progress towards re-entrance in the field of active and contesting governance has been thus far just that – a steady progress. This is to say that if their hopes of dethroning Modi Ki Guarantee is to come to fruition, they must push harder. We may thus analyse the strategies taken up by both parties to offend and defend against each other.

The three central social discourses reserving the most of critical influence on the current of the course are, as Karthik K.R. et alia have put it, Kisan, Jawan and Pehelwan, i.e., the farmer’s protest, the Agniveer scheme and the Vinesh Phogat sexual harassment case, respectively. The first and the last, potent weapons in the hands of the opposition, have already announced a preference against the incumbency. Swooping in with the opportunity to turn the tide with her narrative, Phogat has descended into the realm of politics, armed with the story of her struggle against the state and by extension the state of the government, directing her focus towards the Julana constituency. She has premised her narrative on the back of women’s empowerment, sexual harassment, and the deplorable educational and health facilities, having already garnered significant support on behalf of the Congress from the female vote bank.

In the rural areas, the BJP share had declined as a reaction to, amidst many others, Manohar Lal Khattar’s leadership. This was Congress’ gain. The BJP has launched outreach programmes powered by the RSS and their grassroot presence to regain the vastly-depleted vote share. Additionally, they have adopted a distancing strategy wherein they have invisibilised Khattar in most of their campaigns, including rallies and photos on posters. The urban support for BJP seems to be far stronger.

The OBC demographic of Haryana, that figures in around 40% of the population, has proved to be indispensable to both parties. The Congress has been a proponent of the caste census and announced the OBC Creamy Layer income limit to stand at ten lakhs, leaving behind the BJP’s eight lakhs. The OBC population has historically been tilted towards the BJP but now, stands at an impasse, unable to pick a side, for the BJP’s efforts to reel them into their side of the court have not passed unnoticed. However, the wind augurs an ultimate Congress victory in this case, since the intra-party schisms have not only stopped at Congress’ doorstep.

The BJP OBC leader Karan Dev Kamboj’s defection to Congress does not bode well for the party. There has been an attempt to target the non-Jat (in popular parlance the 36-biradari) voters as well as the Dalit voters by the BJP. The Congress believes that they might insure themselves against this loss by uniting the Jat and Dalit vote bank, which shall inevitably prove to be a daunting task given the chasmic disparity in social and financial conditions between those two communities. Prominent Dalit leader and the front-person for the Dalit leadership in Congress, Kumari Selja, has resorted to accentuating maati(soil) as opposed to jati(caste) in order to invoke “a fraternal coalition of different caste groups.” While the Congress has been labouring to present a distinct portrait of unity, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kumari Selja, and Randeep Singh Surjewala holding separate rallies betrays an obvious condition of acrimony born of differing political ideology.

Broiling tensions and gritty countermeasures unfortunately do not prognosticate a certain outcome, albeit BJP’s foundations have certainly been shaken. The Congress has upgraded its politics from online slander to a tangible candour, and that has irrefutably elevated its reception in the eyes of the public, which shall reflect in the Haryana elections more than ever.

 

Read Also: Rahul Gandhi’s Tryst with Destiny: The Revival of the Last Gandhi

Featured Image Credits: TOI

Aayudh Pramanik

[email protected]

Journalism has been called the “first rough draft of history”. D.U.B may be termed as the first rough draft of DU history. Freedom to Express.

Comments are closed.